Feb 9, 2011

Biscotti is the perfect grown up cookie. Easy to recognize by their long crescent shape. When hard and crispy, it's perfect for dipping into your coffee. A moister biscotti, which is how I like my biscotti, is perfect to eat by itself or with a glass of (fat free) milk.

Biscotti is baked twice, first it's shaped into a log and baked, then it's sliced on an angle and and baked a second time. Traditional biscotti contains no butter or oil and has a crispy, crunchy texture. This is the cookie you want to dip into your java. Adding just a little butter transforms this into the most addictive cookie you'll probably ever make.

I asked my Facebook fans which recipe they preferred, the one with or without butter and the results were 50/50... so I'm posting both.

This is the butter free version. This was more of an experiment I wasn't planning on posting. I cut them too soon, so the chocolate chips smeared a bit but I didn't care because these weren't going to make it to the blog. I had them on my counter and my daughter, the chocoholic in the house, came home from school and must have tasted one and raved about them. Asked me to pack them in her lunch for snack. My non-dieting skinny teen liked these!

Combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Add chocolate chips and mix. Gradually add eggs and egg whites to the mixture and combine to make a dough. (If dough is too dry add one more egg white)

Divide the dough into two or three loafs. Place on the lined baking sheets and bake 20 minutes. (If the dough is too sticky to form with your hands, you can use a wooden spatula to transfer it onto the baking sheets)

When cool enough to handle, gently cut the loaves on the angle into 1/2 inch slices (a serrated bread knife works good for this).

Return to the baking sheets fitting as many as you can. You may need to do this in batches. Bake the biscotti for another 3-4 minutes on each side. (less time for if you like it softer)

I don't have dark chocolate chips in my house, and after seeing these I want to make them right now! Do you think it will matter if I use semi-sweet cc? Also, would that change the points value at all? Thanks so much for all of your AMAZING recipes! You truly are a LIFESAVER!!!!!!

I agree with you, perfect grown up cookie. I never used to be a biscotti fan but my mom loves them so I started baking them to send to her as gifts and in the process, tried them and loved them. I adore how you can adapt them to almost any flavor combination.

Hmm...another delicious recipe I will be trying! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your recipes! I discovered your site a couple of weeks ago and have made several different recipes...every single one of them is fabulous! It's like you remade my whole recipe box of favorite into amazing healthier versions! My husband and my one-year old are also impressed. I also have a strange love of food photos, so I love those too. :-)

I have to try these. They look great! Have any recipes for lemon scones? I love the one they have at Starbucks but don't see it often anymore and it would be wayyyyyyy too many points :)Wanted to let you know that I found your website only a couple of weeks ago but have made at least half a dozen or more of your recipes. I have a large family (6 kids) and everything has received great reviews! Thanks!

Just made these, they are delicious! My dough took an extra egg white to come together but other than that looked well. It was a bit crumbly after the first bake but that may be because I added whole hazelnuts. They didn't cut very well, so they aren't the prettiest, but they are awesome! Next time i will work the dough by hand and see if that makes a difference, I'll also flatten it more. Thanks for the recipe!

My neighbor made the best I have ever had it is light and crispy. I will try this recipe. I made some ginger and white choc, they were heavy and crispy. Maybe the butter made it heavy. Thanks I am doing that Asian chicken this weekend.

Sara, I was calculating with and without the butter for the pistachios biscotti. I wasn't even planning on posting these, I just made these to test without the butter and since I had no more pistachios, I added chocolate chips.

I then decided to post these first. Sorry if I confused you, the chocolate biscotti recipe is 2 points, without the butter.

I put this into a recipe calculator but subbed eggs for egg beaters and sugar for sweetener and came up with identical nutrition values, almost to the decimal. How are yours so low cal? Flour, cocoa and chocolate chip calories don't vary that much by brand. Thank you, Heather

Just tried making these yesterday. Very easy. I needed to add 2 extra egg whites, as I think my eggs were medium sized, not large. I also used semi sweet chips since that was what I had. They are delicious! I think they will help satisfy my chocolate craving when it hits! Thanks for a great recipe.

Hi Gina!I am in the middle of baking these right now, but I am just a little worried because it was SOOOOOO sticky when I was trying to "form" it into a loaf...Im new to baking so Im pretty clueless, but I figured I might have done something wrong. I had to add 3 extra whites...maybe I shouldnt have done that! Anyway...I guess I just wanted to make sure im "on track" even with the super-stickiness...thanks for any help :) love all you recipes :)

just made these and they are DELICIOUS!!! My mom is famous for her biscotti and I think these taste just as good. They are rich and satisfying! I love the chocolate and i want to use the recipe but make some changes to create a skinny lemon almond biscotti. Thank you so much!

Not sure what I did wrong with these today,mine turned out to be crumbly when cutting and were almost like a crunchy brownie...first time with biscotti! Taste great but definatly does not look like yours! After baking for 20 mins. what are the loaves supposed to be like? I think mine were under done....

Hi Gina..I noticed that some people said these were okay to freeze....I want to get a jump start on holiday baking..what is the best way to freeze/defrost these so they keep their crunchiness (I like to give them with a DD gift card for dunking!)

Mmm delicious!! I just made 2 batches - one with cocoa powder and one without. The one with the cocoa I had to add an extra egg white, but they both turned out amazing!! Thank you so much, I'm definitely remembering this recipe for the future!!

Hey Gina, I'm a frequent lurker of your blog and I figured I'd finally try out one of your recipes! They're currently baking in the oven right now, but I've already noticed that my batch did NOT yield 24 biscotti...in fact, I only got around 13 initially, but then they broke down the middle while I was flipping them resulting in 24 or so very small, ugly little cookies. How did yours turn out so pretty, and how big are they supposed to be??

I LOVE these! I cut back on the choc chips to 1/2 cup and added some dried cherries and chopped walnuts. YUMMY! I had trouble cutting them w/out them crumbling but I think I didn't let them cool enough. Another batch is in the oven. Thank you.

I think I messed up.. my dough wasn't that sticky and when I cooked them they aren't crispy and don't taste very good =/ I think I used too much egg white.. I have just one very big carton of it so I did 1 cup of it and I think it might have been a bit too much.. I wonder if I cook it longer will it get crispy and not matter..

Fantastic. :) I will say I was a little intimidated by the phrase "cut gently," but after trying sawing (not right), chopping (not right), I finally figured out how it was done. Super tasty! Thanks for the awesome recipe.

Made them, and they were delicious. Used two medium eggs, and 60g of egg whites (2). Dough was very sticky for me. Only made one loaf but cut them in 15 (with a serrated knife, just out of the oven), then in halves, so I had 30 biscottis, worth 2pp each (put it through recipe builder to check).

Delicious. Had a friend over for lunch, and she is not aware that we are doing WW. She had 3 of them for dessert (with your strawberry-rhubarb compote, which is also delicious). Then she had another 2 with tea. So I'm glad they made the cut!

I just made these and they turned out perfect. First biscotti attempt ever.

I mixed the dough by hand and it wouldn't stick together at all. Figuring my eggs were a little small, I went up to to four whites and two yolks. A little elbow grease later, problem solved. Don't have a food processor, so I didn't superfine the sugar.

There didn't seem to be enough dough to make two, much less three biscotti loaves, but I did two really flat 9x3in loaves anyway. While they were baking I read the Chocolate Pistachio recipe and learned they were supposed to be 8x1.5in because they spread and rise. So my biscotti ended up abnormally wide. Would be extremely helpful to have the measurements included in THIS recipe.

Cutting with a serrated edge using a single slice was a breeze. They toasted great. 21 slices. I'll be cutting thinner next time.